Posted: November 3rd, 2020
Dystopia or Utopia
First, in the book 1 984 by George Orwell, dyspepsia is shown right off by the futuristic setting. Orwell shows the theme dyspepsia with the futuristic setting in 1 984 by using the Thought Police and vaporization. The Thought Police are constantly monitoring the thoughts of Oceania citizens, to make sure they do not disobey ‘ ‘The Party’ or “Big Brother’. In the book it says several times “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU! ” (Orwell 3), this saying creates fear in the citizens, and reminds them they are always being watched by their government. They do this to make sure the current government will stay in control.
If any citizen ever even thinks about going against or betraying “The Party’, they get vaporized immediately. Being vaporized means that they basically make the citizen completely disappear and they also make it seem like they never existed. The author causes the reader to be afraid by using these forms of technology that are impossible in our world currently; this enhances the theme of dyspepsia. The main character Winston Smith, is always fighting his urge to go against and betray “The Party’ because he knows what he consequence will be if he ever does betray them.
This also greatly enhances the theme of dyspepsia in 1984. Second, the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury has an underlying theme of dyspepsia as well. When reading just the first few pages of this book, the reader can get a feeling of dyspepsia very quickly. One of the first things that makes the reader think this is, is the fact that the firemen in Fahrenheit 451 burn books, instead of putting out fires, like they do in our modern day society. This seems very strange to use because it is not what we are used to, UT this is a way the author enhances the theme of dyspepsia.
We see this dyspepsia world through the eyes of the main character Guy Montage. He is one Of the firemen that burn books, and he Starts to question why he does this throughout the book, especially when he meets his new neighbor, Claries. She is a young girl that makes him think about the world in new ways and makes him wonder about his life, his ideals, and his own happiness. This is a quote from the book, ‘”Do you ever read any of the books you burn? ” He laughed. “That’s against the law! ” “Oh of course” (Bradbury 8). Montage is liking to Beauty, his boss about reading books.
After this he takes an interest in reading and soon steals a book to read, instead of burning it. In this fictional world created by Bradbury, the reading of books is abandoned. If someone is caught with a book, they are sent to a mental hospital and their books are burned, or they are sentenced to death. This also enhances the theme of dyspepsia because the government does not want the people to know anything and only do what they want them too. Thirdly, the book Brave New World written by Aloud Huxley also has an underlying theme of dyspepsia.
Most of the time there is a big difference between a utopia and dyspepsia, for some readers, this book can be seen as either. It is dyspepsia because the people are built in factories, rather than by human interaction, also in a child’s upbringing they go through conditioning. This is a quote from the book talking about conditioning ‘that is the secret of happiness and virtue- liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny’ (Huxley 16). Conditioning means that they are trained to dislike and like certain things.
All of the people in the society think that things are perfect, until Bernard Marx comes along. As a baby Bernard received extra alcohol in his ‘baby bag”, and he is different than the rest of the people. He has only engaged with 3 women in a year, whereas most “normal” alphas engage 2-3 women per week. Another example of dyspepsia is the system of control in Brave New World is pleasure, and indulgence. Sex and drugs causes the people to be happy all the time, and this keeps them from ever going against the government.
In other words, the government keeps all the citizens under the influence, and happy to intro them and get the citizens to do whatever they want them too. Others might say that these three books, 1984, Fahrenheit 451 , and Brave New World aren’t dyspepsia, but they are utopias. They might say that these worlds are perfect because everybody has a job, or that nobody is in poverty. They also might say this because you don’t hear of anyone getting killed, or anyone getting robbed. This might be true, but the cons of these societies outweigh the pros, therefore they should be considered Dyspepsia.
The governments in all three of these books have way too much control, and have he people oppressed to get them to do anything they want, and to keep them from going against them. In conclusion, Dyspepsia is the word that comes to mind with the stories and political horrors with government control, politicians, and community leaders being those who are most opposed by the audience and the main characters in the stories throughout Brave New World, 1 984, and Fahrenheit 451. Dyspepsia is the opposite of utopia, which means a perfect society. Dyspepsia means an imperfect society. All three of these books have an underlying theme of dyspepsia.
